129: How Authors Can Leverage Their Books for More Impact and Income
In this episode, I'm joined by Parchelle Tahshi, CEO and Founder of The Author's Leverage. Parchelle is an award-winning creative educator who partners with authors to help them repurpose and monetize their bestselling books as premium and profitable online courses that create impact and additional income.
Highlights
Why a book should be turned into a course
What Parchelle looks for when helping her clients turn their book into a course.
How authors can monetize their books using the VRE system
How big of an audience you need before you start & tips to get started quickly and easily
Mentioned In This Episode
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Transcript:
00:00:03 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
And today, my special guest is Parchelle Tahshi. And Parchelle is a award-winning creative educator who partners with authors to help them repurpose and monetize their best selling books as premium and profitable online courses that create impact and additional income. And today, we're going to be talking with her about how authors can leverage their books for more impact and income.
00:00:32 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
Parchelle, I am so excited that you are joining me here today and I have a ton of questions for you. But before I jump into all of them, can you tell the good audience a little bit about you and how you help people?
00:00:46 Parchelle Tahshi
Absolutely. And thanks again for having me. I'm super excited for this conversation. I'm, I'm, I'm a former school teacher and I got into the world of entrepreneurship through video and media production and and always had that background in, you know, in teaching education.
00:01:03 Parchelle Tahshi
And I had a masters in curriculum and instruction. So when I got into production, I thought, oh, what a waste of time, you know, like this education degree, this piece of paper on my wall. And I hang it up proudly now because it really informs our ability to help authors. As you said, we essentially believe and we see that, you know, today's published experts remain underpaid, and their ideas really aren't spreading as far as they thought it would. And so it's really been a privilege and an honor to step into this space to help authors essentially repurpose what they've already produced.
00:01:34 Parchelle Tahshi
In their in their book. Because the same way movies are created, you know how we can repurpose movies into all kinds of other experiences. Authors today have that same ability today. And so we help them identify and create and publish, you know, other products that are companies to their book.
00:01:52 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
And I love that what you said, repurpose, what they've already produced. And I think we all want to do that, right? We all want to take what we've already done and, you know, put it in maybe different.
00:02:05 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
Formats it don't help us impact more people long term. So let's talk about this in a little bit more detail. Why do you think a book is a good candidate to repurpose into a course?
00:02:22 Parchelle Tahshi
Oh my gosh.
00:02:25 Parchelle Tahshi
I think that a book is great to be repurposed into a course. Um, because one, you know a lot of the, a lot of the, the, the nuts and bolts of what you're teaching is already there. But it also lends itself to your readers asking the question, what do I do now? What's next? How can actually implement what I'm reading? There's a lot of opportunity that is there that your book creates. So think of it more is that your book is like the Eiffel Tower. It attracts people to your world, but once they're there, they're not just going to see the tower.
00:02:57 Parchelle Tahshi
And in fact a lot of their dollars their time is going to be spent in other places that surround that that that main attraction and so without that you're you're kind of leaving them hanging in a way and and really today a lot of readers want and need the support and facility you know the the the implementation in some regards handle for them and so maybe that's what your book is pointing towards but just think that you can you can essentially create a a playground around your book that really allows people to not only get more from what you've written.
00:03:28 Parchelle Tahshi
Um, but also become fans for life because you're actually creating the conditions for them to be successful with what you put in your book.
00:03:36 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
So you said create a playground around what you've already written. I love that. I love the playground concept there. And you know, when I was, as you were thinking about that, I was thinking about my book that I have on Amazon. This is a digital product. I'm, I know a lot of people who are listening here either want to have one or they already have a book like that, like a digital product.
00:03:58 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
The book that maybe they're selling on Amazon or their own website or what have you and you're right, you can just, it's it's a way for them to take what they've learned in the book and take it to the next level. So let me ask you this, what do you look for when turning a book into a course or I you know, maybe saying it differently, what, what kind of book makes a good course?
00:04:24 Parchelle Tahshi
Oh, this is such a good question. The books that do really, really well.
00:04:29 Parchelle Tahshi
We're looking at the genre of of that book and and who it's written for, you know that audience. And what we find is that the topics that do really, really well when it comes to online courses is in the areas of wealth, health, relationships and personal development and or or even leadership. So these are the topics that generally are going to perform very very well in companion products, you know for the author and their book. So I always recommend taking a look at that and if and if you've written a book that you're not sure.
00:05:00 Parchelle Tahshi
Palletizing. Find a way you can have a you know your your book and what you've written in that nonfiction manner can really support people in ways that you haven't even considered.
00:05:11 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
So would you say most nonfiction books make a good course?
00:05:16 Parchelle Tahshi
I would say so and it really depends on where we look when we think about course. There's all different types of courses as well. There's self-guided courses, there are membership courses, there are you know other, you know a number of different types of products. And so it can take on a lot of different forms and it really depends upon.
00:05:33 Parchelle Tahshi
Your your reader and what's going to be the best condition for them to be successful with with the learning?
00:05:40 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
So let me let me ask you this, how can authors monetize their books today?
00:05:48 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
You know, to go outside of Amazon, I should say, or or, you know that book publisher.
00:05:55 Parchelle Tahshi
Ohh, absolutely there are. To me, this is the key of seeing monetization within your book is really thinking about the experiences that you can create with it and answering the question of how can I bring my reader even better results, and even further, how can I help them implement what they're learning as well. These are the things that really come into matter when you're creating what I call a VRE. This is something that I just developed recently, but VRE is a valuable repurposed experience.
00:06:25 Parchelle Tahshi
I mean, it really speaks to a high tech, high touch experience that you want to have with your readers beyond your book. So these can these can take the form of something like an online course. It can be an audio book, which most of us are familiar with, a workshop, a mastermind, a membership, you know, maybe a toolkit, workbooks, things that are physical, maybe even an exclusive interview of you speaking more in depth about a story or about something that maybe your readers didn't get in the book. There are so many experiences and we kind of put that lens on it.
00:06:56 Parchelle Tahshi
You really see a lot of potential with again being able to monetize your book. You want to repurpose it. And in today's day and age, experience is so, so important. I mean, think about the ease in which you can use an app for example. That's user experience. The designers of that app took a lot of time and consideration for how can this be a smooth experience. And so you want to think of the same when it comes to your readers, right? How can I create for them an experience that is going to get them real results and they have some support.
00:07:27 Parchelle Tahshi
In ensuring that it gets done and sometimes if you're if you're an author who doesn't really want to be let's say on calls all the time and and things of that nature. You know you can create the way in which you can engage with your readers. It's really up to you and what's going to be you know best suited for them and it could be a community. So many communities serve themselves in a way. So there's so many options available when it comes to you know how can I repurpose this. How can I monetize this book you really want to put on that lens of OK if my book is an Eiffel Tower what are the, what are the other attractions?
00:07:58 Parchelle Tahshi
That are possible to create other experiences outside of just reading this?
00:08:02 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
Book. So I'd love that VRE valuable repurpose experience. I've never heard that before, but I love how you kind of tie that in to taking the books to the next level. And you know, I'm thinking about my books that I have on Amazon. And if somebody purchases on Amazon, they also get access to my private audio fee that goes along with the book. It has a workbook. So a couple things that you mentioned there, but you're right, there's a lot of different ways that you can kind of.
00:08:28 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
Take that experience and you know, keep engaging with your community that's reading, reading your book. So another question that I have for you and, and I think a lot of people out here can relate to this. They have this book or they want to have this book and but they don't really have a large e-mail list or even a large social media following. What do you have to say about that? Do they need a large audience to be successful?
00:08:59 Parchelle Tahshi
No, no, not at all. I think that it's really, I mean essentially you have different options when it comes to.
00:09:08 Parchelle Tahshi
You know, based on where you are, if you will. So if you're in, if you're an author who doesn't have a large audience yet, you can use your book. And again these other VRE that we discussed, we can use them as means to build up your lead generation, to build up your list. It's really becomes more of a, you know, essentially like a chess game. How can I set up the pieces of my experiences from my book to attract people, bring them into my world, have an upsell for them, you know, as they go through this journey with me. So what I love about, you know, even.
00:09:38 Parchelle Tahshi
If you are an author, you don't have a huge list. You can use the content of your book to be something with which to attract people to your world.
00:09:47 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
Porcell, if somebody is wanting, if they have a book or they're launching one soon and they want to take it to the next level with these other BRE experiences that you talked about, what would be some of the first steps that they would need to take?
00:10:05 Parchelle Tahshi
Yeah, absolutely. The first step in this process is really to.
00:10:12 Parchelle Tahshi
Look for and talk to your you look, you know, get it. Get in touch with your, your community, your readers, and ask from them what's next or what are the challenges they're experiencing. And I think from there it's going to be such you'll be in such a better position to determine what kind of experiences you can create on the back end. This is something that I also feel that, you know, some support is going to be needed. So the same way that a lot of authors have been able to publish their books, you didn't do it alone. So we we provide.
00:10:42 Parchelle Tahshi
In our end as well, what we recommend is an audit, right doing audit and a strategy of your book to help us. You know, we can help you identify essentially what our.
00:10:52 Parchelle Tahshi
What options do you have? Right, we're going to take a look at how much time and availability that you have on the resources that you have, what what currently are we working with? So that way we can just develop a strategy with you to determine, you know, what those next steps can be. So I guess it is an invitation to come and have a conversation with us to, to figure out what those next steps can be. But that that's what I would recommend. Get in touch with your audience, understand where they are, where they're at, start to consider what experiences you can create for them and then.
00:11:23 Parchelle Tahshi
Talk with a professional and talk with somebody that's that can help you put the pieces together to see, oh wow, there is a way. I can not only sell companion products, but I can sell more books in the process.
00:11:34 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
Can you tell us about some of the clients that you've worked it, worked with in the past that had a book and they did some of these extra experiences around it? And you know, not giving us maybe any names if that's confidential, but kind of give us some ideas of what some of your, you know, current clients or past clients have done?
00:11:55 Parchelle Tahshi
Yeah, absolutely. So I'll I'll share this one story. I'm really excited because his book is just released for the holiday season and what I loved.
00:12:04 Parchelle Tahshi
About his his book releasing the strategy that he implemented was that he only released this to his existing membership. His book did not go on Amazon, but essentially it was, it was, it was a gift to his membership to really be the spark from within to attract more people through referrals and through you know just the ambassadorship of of his community. So first of all I love that strategy but nevertheless he had this new book and this book that he released is.
00:12:34 Parchelle Tahshi
Actually the answer to his first book. And so together we were able to create an online course for both of these books. We also conducted an exclusive and exclusive interview that's going to be essentially used as a lead magnet within his campaign and also we were able to develop a toolkit with him. So this toolkit is essentially MBA level for for business and decision making and and growing and selling and exiting a business.
00:13:04 Parchelle Tahshi
And so we also developed a toolkit of I think we're over 60 different tools within this toolkit that are digital that can be purchased along with a membership. So it's they, they've, they've utilized all of these VRE and beautiful fashions and I'm just so, so excited. So his, his is a new, a new release as I mentioned but as as as a gift to his community and as well as a way to spread the word further we were able to.
00:13:34 Parchelle Tahshi
Connect with that and develop these other DVR's with him to again create that journey and make it more valuable for his audience.
00:13:42 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
So Parchelle, any last minute tips you have for the audience before we wrap it up here?
00:13:48 Parchelle Tahshi
Thank you. Yeah I'm, I I love talking about this stuff. I'm happy to continue further my team and I to have a discussion with anybody who's interested in this and and what we can do and help other authors. But what I want most of us to walk away with from this conversation is is something I love to say a lot and I've I've heard it and kind of tweaked it as my own but.
00:14:10 Parchelle Tahshi
Publishing creates credibility, but products create cash and the digital products that you create on the back end of your book can not only create the impact that you want, but again create the opportunity for you to have more income to show for it. And so I'm really excited as we, you know, go into the next year and going forward what we're able to do to help help authors. And one of those is with developing what we're calling a book revenue stream. This is a source through which an author earns additional income through a suite of VRE.
00:14:41 Parchelle Tahshi
That are based on their book.
00:14:43 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
So, Parchelle, where can people find you if they want to get in touch?
00:14:47 Parchelle Tahshi
They can go to the authorsleverage.com and we're also on all social media platforms and you can find us at the authors leverage.
00:14:56 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
And I will make sure that those links are in the show notes so people can find you. And thank you so much for joining me and sharing your knowledge about how authors can monetize their books.
00:15:08 Parchelle Tahshi
Yeah. My pleasure. Thanks for having me, Destini.
00:15:10 Dr. Destini Copp (host)
Thank you.